Yesterday I got the hankering for some Greek food. It all started with a craving for tzatziki (a yogurt cucumber sauce), then I figured why not make some meatballs, so we (me and the dudes) could have a nice sandwich. Of course, the meatballs needed to be vegetarian *sigh* because I’m surrounded by those people. I made the “meat”balls based on Cat Cora’s Keftedes recipe, with some variations.
Ingredients:
14 oz pack of fake ground beef (it comes in a tube that looks like cookie dough)
1/2 an medium yellow onion, chopped pretty small
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Tablespoons fresh oregano, minced
4 large mint leaves, minced
2 fresh sage leaves, minced
A little bit of fresh thyme (less than a 1/4 teaspoon), minced
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
2 large eggs, beaten
Dash of nutmeg
2 1/4 slices of honey wheat bread (HFCS free of course)
Salt & Pepper
Olive oil
Flour
Directions:
1. Put the 2 slices of bread in water and squeeze as much moisture out of it as you can (keep the other 1/4 slice dry)
2. Mix the “beef,” wet & dry bread, onion, garlic, herbs, vinegar, eggs, nutmeg, salt and pepper together by hand.
3. Spoon some out and roll into a ball-repeat until finished. Mine were about 2” across and were a bit too big because it took a while to cook in the middle
4. Toss the balls into flour just to coat
5. Put some olive oil in a large sauté pan and put on high heat, then throw the balls in, browning them on all sides.
6. Put balls on a paper towel to sop up any excess oil
I suggest serving them on flatbread or pitas (anything that doesn’t have High Fructose Corn Syrup—Sahara brand does) and putting tzatiki on it maybe some hot sauce, if you dare.
For the Tzatziki, this is what I did:
1 large container of Fage Greek yogurt
1/2 a medium cucumber, diced very small
4 cloves garlic, minced
Salt and pepper to taste
Just combine all those ingredients and let it set for a little; I actually made this before the meatballs,so the flavors had a chance to mingle with the yogurt.
Oh yeah and I got a hunk of feta, threw it on a pan, tossed some onions on it, some olives, a little olive oil, a dash of pepper, then baked it in the oven (325 F) until it was nice and warm — It’s seriously tasty. I first had it in Crete at a restaurant and fell in love with feta served that way-although they had tomatoes and green pepper on theirs (no thanks).
It went over really well, the boys loved it and I thought the meatballs tasted like the real thing. The mint was very refreshing on a hot summer night. Definitely going to add this to regular rotation.
I feel like I have been inundated with pig talk today! The first thing, we send our reject chocolate to a pig farm, which is nothing new for pig farmers to feed their livestock “leftovers.” There is a shipment going out today, which gets me to wondering about the pig’s meat; does the chocolate influence its flavor? I’d like to think so. Someday I hope to bite into a pork chop and get a subtle hint of chocolate lurking in the meat.
